Instructional Design: Are Other People’s Graphics Better Than Yours? Here’s What to Do About It.

“There are a number of fine points in the use of graphics that will give your production a more professional appearance. Here are the key ones.”

There was a time when instructional designers didn’t need to worry about graphics. Among other things, the skills and tools were highly specialized, which meant that instructional designers or technical writers wrote and graphic artists did graphics.

No more.

Today, almost every authoring tool contains a graphic drawing component, and your boss knows it. “Hire a graphic artist? You’ve got to be kidding me. Why can’t you do it yourself?”

Of course, there are a number of reasons why you shouldn’t have non-graphical people doing their own graphics, but if you think that your boss will have a change of heart and hire a professional graphic designer to help with your project, you may be making a big mistake.

It would be better for you to learn a few reasons why graphics that other people create are better than your graphics, and to take the steps needed to make your graphic images appear more professional.

Left brain versus right brain

As a rule, when you write descriptions of processes or procedures, you use your left brain, but graphic designers utilize their right brains (creativity) more than their left.

Does that mean you cannot create your own graphics? Absolutely not. But you should be aware that it will be eas…

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